How do all three poets portray city and city life?

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

How do all three poets portray city and city life? During all three poems, writers convey city life as aggressive and cruel, sometimes obvious but at other times hidden. This is firstly illustrated throughout 'A London Fete' as Coventry Patmore describes the hanging as popular and, during the middle of the unfortunate event people stand and 'enjoy the wicked treat' denoting the violence of their attitudes. Similarly, the author uses harsh vocabulary such as 'cry', 'chaos' and 'half-crushed' suggesting the fear from the crowd as they take pleasure in watching the dreadful hanging. The excited crowds 'eyeballs lit with hell' illuminates the excited horror in everybody's eyes as the convict dies. Many would also view, Blake's 'London' portrays savagery but this is more sharply presented as this poem highlights the brutality all the way through. 'Cry of every man, infants cry of fear' brings out the fear of people from all ages, adults down to children and even babies. Usually, violence is something an infant is not associated with and the author has regularly placed this innocence symbol against the murderous images to make it more of an opposite because violence is a guilty crime and the baby is interested. ...read more.

Middle

The 'Harlot's Curse' is used along with other negative symbols like 'ban' and 'weakness' to make it universalised in a completely opposite way. This is extremely similar to 'In Praise of Cities' as Thom Gunn also does this, but a lot more subtlety. He uses 'irresistible' in an enticing and entrapping way making the negativity seem positive. 'You stay' highlights the influence because you feel like you had been given the choice to leave but you had been directed into staying. These three poems show city life as dominant plenty of times, in obvious and masked ways at different stages throughout. Throughout these three poems poets have used unnatural images to highlight the unusualness of the city and city life. 'In Praise of Cities' by Thom Gunn has many examples of this, firstly 'Her pavements desolate in the dim, dry air' highlighting the stop of growth. 'Desolate' is to feel empty and alone, 'dim, dry' are images of lack of growth, this showing the negativity in life as an all round place, all the same. ...read more.

Conclusion

Throughout the three poems there is a strong sense of lure, enticing you to the city. Firstly, during 'London' by William Blake, there are examples of positive images such as 'marriage', 'child' and 'church', which would usually attract people, but negative signs like 'hearse', which slowly draws the reader in, follow them. The lure of the city in 'London' is not as powerful as it is in 'In Praise of Cities', which uses strong vocabulary. The poem by Thom Gunn uses the sexual overtone to attract people to the city. 'Love making' is an example of sex and it highlights the lure because people are attracted to love and all that comes with it. Here the lure is presented as sexual whereas in 'A London Fete' by Coventry Patmore the crowd and the joining as one attract you. 'Joined the roar' highlights the fact that everyone has the experiences of being in a community. 'Fought for places' also brings out this same effect but shows it as much more violent, however this will still attract people. Lure is highlighted many of times during the three poems but in completely opposite ways. Allen Simmons 10ne ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE William Blake section.

Related GCSE William Blake essays

jeep, too scared to squeeze through a gap slowing us down even more and not forgetting the air pollution that is like living in a smokers' club where all the factory chimneys act like the cigarettes and the factory owners as the smokers with us being the passive smokers having

return to nature, as this is where Man is supposed to be. This message telling the audience that; if the industrial revolution isn't careful, it will end in disaster would have really attracted attention for its new, intriguing ideology. To most of Britain the Industrial revolution would have been seen

For relaxation, the Members of Parliament have reception rooms which lead onto the riverside terrace. In gardens across the road is the Jewel Tower. Among moderns sculptures to have been placed in the vicinity is the statue of Sir Winston Churchill, with his larger-than-life size sculpture raised on a plinth.

This helps the reader to carry on reading. Clever Tom Clinch has been written in the form of a ballad, which means that there is a narrator, which is telling you what is happening throughout the poem. For instance, `As Clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was, rode stately through Holborn, to die in his calling'.

has not happened in this case as the fire is still at its peak when the poem comes to an end. Like the people of London we are left with a feeling of loss and anxiety. Although more than 13,000 houses, 87 churches and the main buildings in the City

of the Labour Party from 1931 to 1935 - did much to try and improve conditions for local people. Sylvia Pankhurst headed the militant East London branch of the Suffragette movement based on Old Ford Road. The borough is historically famous for providing refuge to those fleeing persecution.

"Clattering and clanging of hateful voices, sickening and stunned the air," depicts just how much the poet sees the crowd as sinners during this very religious time. "A thief slunk off with ample spoil, to ply elsewhere his daily toil," this line tells us that although Public execution was designed